Summer camp can be hit or miss. Sometimes homesickness prevails, turning what was meant to be a jovial, adventurous few months into a miserable countdown to mom and dad's return. For Tess Chardiet '13, however, camp was the exact opposite, influencing her life so much that it transformed her high school and college experiences into theatrically inclined endeavors.
Chardiet began acting in sixth grade as part of an after school arts program. Her first production, "The Crane Wife," recounted a dramatic Japanese tale of a crane-turned-seamstress who hides her identity for the sake of love. After experiencing the stage for the first time, Chardiet was hooked, and her blooming interest soon transformed into a zealous passion. Her love for theater followed her throughout high school and has continued at Bowdoin.
"I tried out a theater program when I was in sixth grade, and, come high school, I knew I wanted to enroll in a secondary arts school," she said. "I said, 'Well, I've done theater before...why don't I try that?' I got into the program and I've been doing it ever since."
Chardiet has continued to pursue her passion in college.
"When I came to Bowdoin, I looked around and auditioned for two director's projects," said Chardiet, who got into scenes from "Curse of the Starving Class" (fall 2009) and "Night of the Iguana" (fall 2010).
After participating in student-directed scenes, Chardiet decided to try out for a student-produced performance and independent study by Sam Duchin '10. Focused on Droznin movement—a technique the director learned while studying abroad in Moscow—the play involved moving the audience around the actors' venue. Chardiet found the experience rewarding but also quite challenging.
"Sam did his independent study in Droznin Movement Theater, which is basically a mix between yoga, Pilobolus and theater," said Chardiet. "It was kind of like taking a gymnastics workout class for a semester; the group of us got together and learned theatrical gestures and poses. We improvised all through the semester and then choreographed what would happen for the actual show in Hubbard Hall. It was really interesting...and really hard!"
Chardiet also enrolled in departmental courses and her favorite so far has been "Theater, Dance, and the Common Good" taught by Professor of Theater Roger Bechtel. Intended to link real life experience with on-stage performance, the course began by introducing students to plays that invoked social change, such as Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage" and "The Caucasian Chalk Circle."
Chardiet and her fellow classmates then interviewed Brunswick community members on a socially relevant topic—gay marriage—and adapted responses into stage-worthy monologues.
"The class was really good," said Chardiet. "We looked at playwrights and choreographers who use their art to express a political or radical opinion and incite social change. Because the law had just been rebuffed, we decided to focus our play on gay marriage."
The class interviewed people from the Unitarian Universalist Church of Brunswick, gay rights activists on campus, and members of the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship.
"We then turned the interviews into a play that we performed at the end of the semester," she said. "It was really incredible."
Although Chardiet enjoys telling others' stories in the spotlight, she finds observing others to be intriguing too—an interest she discovered after taking a photography course with Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Meggan Gould. The course introduced Chardiet to the visual side of the art world, challenging her to use physical materials to interpret her surroundings.
"It was a struggle to take pictures and figure out what was a good photo and what was just sort of nothing," she said. "To express myself through a camera rather than through my own words or actions was difficult. Our professor also didn't let the photographer talk during the critique, which felt weird because you couldn't say, 'No no, that's not what I meant!' or comment on your work."
Chardiet's voice was not silenced for long, however, and she intends to use it to continue acting throughout her Bowdoin career. With plans to declare an English and theater interdisciplinary major this spring, Chardiet hopes to combine acting in plays with analyzing their plots. In addition, she would like to apply acting and theater to help relate to those around her.
"Theater for me has always been the study of people and how people connect," she said. "What draws me to it is its ability to find connections from one culture to another. Theater works to understand why people do what they do."
"Acting is also the part of me that never grew up," added Chardiet. "It keeps reminding me how important it is to sometimes just be a kid again."